WOODCOCK. 
301 
the cold days of March have I seen the woodcocks in the 
new oak plantations of Wootton, carrying their young 
under their wings, clutching them up in their large claws. 
Here on the ground they lay their eggs, which are of 
the same colour as the withered oak-leaves, — a dull 
ochre spotted and clouded with brown, and thus easily 
overlooked." He also says it " breeds in great numbers in 
some seasons." 
Mr. Meade- Waldo,! writing in 1900, says that although 
the bird has increased as a breeding species, it has become 
less common as an autumn migrant, "there having been 
no good woodcock year since 1895." He mentions eighty- 
eight in three days in two New Forest enclosures, in 
January, 1886, as being the best bag in recent years. 
He attributes their increase in summer to the greater 
quiet which prevails in the coverts in early spring. 
As the bird now nests sparingly throughout the county, 
there is no need to mention all the recorded localities. 
They extend on the north to Highclere and Farleigh, 
near Basingstoke, from which place Dr. Sclater has sent 
eggs to the British Museum. On the east to the forests 
of Wolmer, Holt and Bere ; on the south to Emsworth 
and Titchfield, and on the west to the furthest boundaries 
of the New Forest district. 
From St. Catherine's Lighthouse we have had recorded 
about a dozen of this species on November 15th, 1901, at 
10.15 p.m., hovering round the light. 
* Victoria History of Hants." 
